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What's With Blogs, Anyway?

There is so much to do and see on the internet. It's quite the lively place, what with the social media of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Vimeo, YouTube, and on and on.

But what happened to blogs?

Personal blogs are still out there (you're reading one now), but I don't feel they are as prevalent as they once were. Used to be that every author had to have a blog. They needed an online presence. And besides a website, the blog was de rigueur. Not so much anymore. Ive kept this blog, even though my main source of communication with fans and readers these days is on Facebook. Facebook is sure a lot easier and more immediate than a blog. I took a lot of time writing my blog posts, researching the topics, and I do keep my hand in, but I've resorted to quick snacks rather than long articles, like my One Minute History posts. I find that it is the rare reader who wants to stick with even a 500 to 900 word post anymore, what with Huffington Post and Gawker throwing out snippets complete with video, so you don't even have to read if you'd rather not.

What's an author to do? It might be the opposite with some authors, and fellow author and friend Sandra Parshall laments her further participation on Facebook. But I have still found it helpful, despite all the cons she cites (and I do agree with a lot of what she says), to mess around on Facebook. I have learned that readers truly enjoy the interaction, feeling that some authors won't deign to talk to the mere reader. And I have made sales, friends, and a wonderful street team of readers and fans willing to take my bookmarks around to libraries and booksellers, asking for my books to be stocked. That rocks like you wouldn't believe.

And though Facebook can be an incredible timewaster, I think that writing a blog post might be more so, only because few come to the blog anymore (unless, ironically, I post the link on Facebook and Twitter, which I will most certainly do).

What are your thoughts on blogs? Do you really read them anymore? Are they too static a platform? Would you rather interact with authors on Twitter and Instagram? I'd like to hear your views.

Comments

I have found your posts about the historical background of your fiction to be very valuable, indeed. I'd miss them if you allowed this blog to go quiet.

Facebook is not a real writer's medium, it's a Post-it writer's medium. Blogging (obviously) allows someone more space in which to have his or her say, but also the chance to exhibit real writing style. I can often see what to expect from a writer's fiction by reading his or her blog posts.

I greatly encourage you to keep up the blogging, even if you have to allow more time between posts now and then.

I guess I'm old school (Medieval?) in reading everything I can get my hands on (eyeballs glued to), including blogs. I want an article to go with the video (not just a click bait headline to a video which seems to be the de jour method on Facebook right now), not just a rehash of what the video is about. Give me more! Articles, including blog posts, are a way to involve the reader with a lot more back story into what the author was thinking and feeling (keeping this generic for the article author, not just book authors). You are telling a story using more than 140 characters. Use the social media stuff to direct the reader to the blog, a richer, more fully satisfying place that can't be duplicated with the instant gratification of the social media sound bite.

I appreciate that, Jeff. I still think the blog IS valuable in that sense, and in the sense of sharing history with people. But I have watched the diminishing interest in it, and I suspected it was because of competing activities.

Which is why I plan to keep the blog, Robert. I've always thought of it as a magazine of history and mystery. Though I've been doing less and less with it, it can be an excellent tool for sharing history that doesn't get the headline.